1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paint mist removing apparatus for causing a cleaning liquid to capture and remove overspray paint mist from a gas laden with paint mist, and more particularly to a paint mist removing apparatus comprising an air passage through which a paint mist laden gas flows, a first liquid shooting section for scattering the cleaning liquid from opening edges of a passage inlet toward an air flow through the air passage, an upwardly facing inclined surface for receiving the passing objects under the passage inlet, and a downwardly facing surface continuous from a lower edge of the upward facing inclined surface. The air passage allows the air flow through the air passage to deflect toward the downwardly facing surface through a curved section defined between the upwardly facing inclined surface and the downwardly facing surface. The curved section acts as a second liquid shooting section for scattering again the cleaning liquid flowing down the upwardly facing inclined surface toward the air flow under the downwardly facing surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of paint mist removing apparatus as noted above is shown in FIG. 6. This conventional apparatus allows droplets of a cleaning liquid W scattered from a first liquid shooting section H1 defined by opening edges 17a and 17b disposed at an inlet of an air passage 12 to trap paint mist present in the air A flowing down from the passage inlet 12a above an upwardly facing inclined surface "d", thereby to carry out a first stage of paint mist capture. A curved section "b" defined between the upwardly facing inclined surface "d" and a downwardly facing surface "c" continuous from a lower edge of the upwardly facing surface "d" acts as a second liquid shooting section H2. The cleaning liquid W1 received by the upwardly facing inclined surface "d" is further dispersed from the second liquid shooting section H2 into the air flow through a deflecting passage under the downwardly facing surface "c", thereby to allow droplets of the dispersed cleaning liquid W to further trap paint mist contained in the air A flowing down the downwardly facing surface. Thus, a second stage of paint mist capture is effected. The two-stage paint mist capture assures a high mist capturing efficiency.
Moreover, the second stage of paint mist capture is carried out under the downwardly facing surface disposed in a dead angle position as seen from the passage inlet 12a because of the presence of the upwardly facing inclined surface "d" and the downwardly facing surface "c", thereby to effectively check the noise, i.e. the scattering noise of droplets, produced at the second stage of paint mist capture against leakage toward the passage inlet 12a by the barrier action of the upwardly facing inclined surface and the downwardly facing surface and by the sound absorbing action of the scattered droplets in the first stage paint mist capture. Consequently, the noise leaking from the passage inlet 12a is reduced as a whole.
This conventional apparatus has been proposed by the same assignee in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-310320 (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/980,621, filed Nov. 23, 1992). According to this apparatus, as shown in FIG. 6, a hollow space 20 is defined in the air passage at one side of an air path from the passage inlet 12a under the opening edge of the air inlet 12a, while a pendent passage wall 18A' is disposed at an opposite side of the air path, which wall extends from the opening edge 17a acting as the first liquid shooting section H1 to the upwardly facing inclined surface "d".
This proposed apparatus achieves a substantial noise reduction which, however, is not considered sufficient. Thus, there is room for further improvement in reducing the noise.